With Friends Like These…

So all this week the Guardian is celebrating “the United Nations’ vital agencies and associated bodies” and while our friends at the International Criminal Court managed to land the No. 2 slot on the publication’s “best bit of the UN” list, the write up exudes more of a participation medal vibe than anything else.

Alas, the Court doesn’t get out of the opening sentence — never mind the first paragraph! — without a fairly serious black eye:

These are points we’ve hammeredaway at in this space, of course, but the context of the criticism — i.e. a supposed celebration of the Court’s existence and mission — is jarring.

Naturally, the next graph attempts to offer something of a defense…

But supporters say the court has laboured under serious handicaps from its inception. Powerful international actors, such as the US, China and Russia, are not state parties to the treaty of Rome, which established the legal basis for the court in 1998. They continue to reject its jurisdiction over their territory and citizens.

The essay then segues into a Uh, duh section on the West’s do as we say, not as we do approach to international law policy before wrapping up with the following indictment:

The ICC prosecutor’s office has launched nine official investigations since 2002, all in Africa – in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic (two), Libya, Kenya, Darfur (Sudan), Ivory Coast and Mali. It has indicted 36 individuals including Sudan’s Bashir, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, and the former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. The Kenyatta case fell through. Only Gbagbo is certain to face trial, in November this year. Even here, claims that the ICC has mishandled the case have cast doubt on the prosecution’s prospects.

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Frontiers of Freedom, founded in 1995 by U.S. Senator Malcolm Wallop, is an educational foundation whose mission is to promote the principles of individual freedom, peace through strength, limited government, ...